AD I WANT MY SON TO SHINE, BUT NOT IN RING

AJ won't let his boy JJ follow in his fisticuffs

-  MARTIN DOMIN

WHEN the time comes, Anthony Joshua will sit his young son down for the chat.

The same conversation fearful fighting fathers before him had with children raised in the darkest corners of boxing gyms.

Joshua, who takes on former UFC champion Francis Ngannou here in Saudi Arabia tonight, has twice reigned as heavyweight ruler and amassed a fortune large enough to support his family for generations to come.

But he will plead with football-mad son JJ, eight, to look beyond that fame and fortune and to recognise the pain and sacrifice a career in the ring has inflicted.

And where the likes of Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn did not, Joshua hopes to succeed in stopping his son stepping through the ropes.

"I would never let him box. I am not interested in him boxing," he said. "You have to be so strong mentally to be a boxer.